All These Years
by Tadpole24
Summary: What if Grissom had been hurting just as much. Complete fluff, GSR of course. One shot


Disclaimer: I don't own them…it's sad isn't it?

Spoilers: Play With Fire…but come on, who's being spoiled?

Setting: 6th season sometime, coz way down here in Australia we're still only in the 6th season…

A/N: Once again, this was written in the dead of night. It's just based around what it would be like if Grissom had wanted a relationship as much as Sara.

-xox-

All These Years

-xox-

This was the last box, she promised herself. And then she'd go and have something to eat. She pulled out the pile of books and photo albums from the bottom of her cupboard and started going through them. Many of the old notebooks were full with school work, a time of her life that had long passed. Those books were thrown away.

The photo's were a good laugh. Nick in a Santa costume, Greg hitting on one of his locker posters (beer in hand of course), Catherine, Warrick and Archie doing the Hokey Pokey. She turned another page and found the photos Catherine had taken after hijacking her camera. There was one of Grissom and herself dancing under the mistletoe, one of Nick with Greg on a dog leash…she did _not_ want to know how that happened. She laughed when she saw the one of the nightshift competing in an egg and spoon race; Warrick out in front. She laughed harder at the next photo which showed Warrick tripping over, Nick following right behind and Archie taking the lead.

Sara decided they definitely needed to have another Christmas party this year.

She put the album in the box and continued to go through the pile of books. She paused at another photo album, this one was from her childhood. The spiral binding on it was bent out of whack and that was what Sara blamed for her hesitation in opening the first page.

She soon found herself emerged in memories of a time so long ago that she needed these photos to evoke them. Her eyes shone as she was revisited by the memories of herself and her brother running down on the beach. She gasped when she saw her father. The date on the photo told Sara that it was the summer before he had lost his job; the summer before everything changed for her family. He was wearing a dorky T-shirt and some shorts that left nothing to the imagination. A five year old Sara was standing beside him in an equally dorky T-shirt. Both were holding fishing rods each with a fish at the end.

Sara wiped at her cheek, her tears frustrating her. She closed the album and added it to the box, them picked up a foreign looking notebook. It wasn't like here old school books and it had nothing written in it. It took her a good few minutes, but she worked out what the A4 notebook was from.

The day after Grissom had turned down her dinner invitation he had tried to suck up to her by giving her a new notebook for her preliminary notes at crime scenes. He'd told her that he'd noticed her pages were running low, and then gave her the new book. That shift she had used the cardboard backing of her old book, faced the repercussions via Ecklie and then thrown the new notebook into her cupboard, hoping never to see it again.

She was just about to throw it in to the box when she noticed a lose sheet hanging out the end of the back few pages.

Pulling it out, she recognised the writing on it to be Grissom's.

_Sara,_

_I need you to know my motives for saying no this morning. Every muscle in my body, sans mouth, wanted to say yes. Yet unfortunately not every muscle in my body is functioning to its full ability_.

Sara stood up and started to pace, how could she have not seen this before?

_You once asked me how I learned to sign. My mother was deaf by thirty; it was gradual otosclerosis. And it's hereditary._

Her thumbnail found its way to her mouth. Her teeth started chewing and tears started forming.

_I didn't want you to think of me as old. And I will admit to my jealousy; I didn't want to be the rebound guy after Hank. _

She made her way to her kitchen to find her keys and was in her car just as she finished off the letter.

_I'm having the operation in a couple of weeks-my doctor set the date this morning after you left. If all is successful, I would very much like for you to ask me again, and I would like to answer differently. _

_Grissom_

Sara and Grissom had had a discussion about his hearing problem, but the fact that he was willing to share it with her all those years ago had brought tears to her eyes.

She climbed out of car and ran up to their house. She used her key to let herself in and ran straight to their bedroom where she knew he'd be, cleaning out space for all the stuff she'd been packing into boxes.

And there she found him; sitting cross-legged debating on whether to throw out the yellow tie, or the brown one. She saw him make a decision, shrug his shoulders and throw both away.

She smiled and recounted the number of discussions they'd had over the merits of ties. She silently walked over to him and sat down. He didn't even flinch, they had gotten so used to being around each other that he could just sense when she entered a room.

Without a 'hello' or anything, she briskly said, "Will you have dinner with me?"

He didn't look up from the various shoe boxes around him, "Honey, we're about to move in with each other, and you want to go all the way back to the dinner stage?"

Sara took his hand, causing him to look up and finally see the tear stained cheeks and the hand holding his letter, "Babe," she flicked the letter, "Will you have dinner with me?"

Grissom took the page with a confused look on his face. Sara saw his eyes speed read it and then look up with utter puzzlement written everywhere. He didn't even had to ask and she answered.

"It's the first time I've seen it, Gil. I never saw it the night you gave it to me, but as I read it today, I realised something,"

Gil reached out to cup her cheek, "What's that?"

She smiled, almost nostalgically, "You were hurting just as much as I was." She kissed his cheek softly and lay her head in the crook of his neck and asked a question she already knew the answer to, "Did the operation turn out well for you?"

He, in turn, kissed her forehead, "Yes, it did."

This time she quickly pecked him on the lips, "In that case, would you have dinner with me?"

He chuckled, "I would love to."

-xox-

OK, just thought I better explain that the dog leash thing may have been a real event. We caught it on camera, my dad and my uncle…one of the many reasons that I prefer to watch people get drunk than actually get drunk! Lol

Hope you enjoyed, please review!

Em


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